the gift or death of a striker
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
MICHMETHAH.The word occurs only in Jos_16:6; Jos_17:7, in each case with the article, therefore probably not a proper name. Of the meaning of the word we are entirely ignorant. It indicated a place or some natural feature on the boundary of Manasseh. An echo of the old name may perhaps be heard in el-Mukhneh, the plain which lies to the east of Nâbins.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
A landmark between Ephraim and Manasseh W. of Jordan, on the E. of and facing Shechem (Jos_17:7); but Jos_16:6 says Ephraim's border went out toward the sea to Michmethah on the N. side; Grove supposes a gap between Jos_16:5 and Jos_16:6.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Mich'methah. (hiding-place). A place which formed one of the landmarks, of the boundary of the territories, of Ephraim and Manasseh, on the western side of Jordan. Jos_17:7. The position of the place must be somewhere, on the east of , and not far distant from, Shechem.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
mik?mḗ-tha (המּכמתה, ha-mikhmethāh; Codex Vaticanus Ἱκασμών, Hikasmṓn; Codex Alexandrinus Μαχθώθ, Machthṓth): A place named in defining the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh (Jos_16:6; Jos_17:7). It is said to lie ?before,? i.e. to the East of Shechem. In the name itself, the meaning of which is obscure, there is nothing to guide us. The presence of the article, however (?the Michmethah?), suggests that it may not be a proper name, but an appellative, applying to some feature of the landscape. Condor suggests the plain of Makhneh, which lies to the East of Nablus (Shechem), in which there may possibly be an echo of the ancient name.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Michmethah
(Heb. Mikmethath', מַכְמְתָת, perh. hiding-place; Sept. Μαχθώθ, Vulg. Machmethath), a town on the northern border of Ephraim (and the southern of Manasseh), situated eastward of Shechem and southward from Asher, in the direction of Tappuah (Jos_17:7), also not very far west of Jordan, but beyond Taanath-Shiloh (Jos_16:6; where part of the verse appears to have become transposed from its proper location at the beginning of Jos_16:8; see Keil's Comment. ad loc.). These notices appear to fix it not far from Wady Bidan, north-east of Salem. SEE TRIBE. This position corresponds to the location assigned to the associated places by Eusebius (Schwarz, Palest. page 147); and M. de Saulcy found a little village in this vicinity, called el-Makhna, which he thinks may be a vestige of the Biblical locality (Narrative, 1:93); but Dr. Robinson, who passed through this region during his last visit, speaks only of several villages visible in this vicinity (Researches, new ed. 3:298), and applies the name el- Makhna to a large fertile valley south of Nablus (ibid. page 132, etc.); which, however, according to Van de Velde's Map, runs into Wady Bidan.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.